A continuing trend in the electronics, automobile, avionics, and spacecraft industries, among other industries, is to create more and more compact apparatuses leading to an increase in the power density of such apparatuses. Accordingly, as the power density of such apparatuses increases, there may be a corresponding increase in thermal energy to be dissipated for operability of such apparatuses. Notably, the size of such apparatuses, as well as the systems in which they are implemented, may impose additional constraints on the size of heat transfer devices used to transport such heat away.
Conventional fluid-operated heat exchange systems include passageways through which a medium, such as fluid coolant, is caused to flow in order to transport heat. As a result of an increase in the amount of thermal energy to be transported, complexity associated with heat transfer devices has increased. This increase in thermal energy to be transported in some instances has lead to the narrowing of channels in which the coolant is flowed.
A problem in some fluid-operated heat exchange systems is caused by the presence of air in a cooling loop of such system interacting with the coolant. Air, as is generally known, includes oxygen. While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is believed that the interaction of the oxygen and coolant with inner surfaces, such as inner metallic surfaces, of the cooling loop may accelerate an electrochemical reaction in the cooling loop. The acceleration of these reactions may result in one or both of oxidation of the coolant and corrosion of inner surfaces of materials of the cooling loop. Corrosion may reduce longevity, performance, and reliability, such as, for example, due to internal generation of particulate clogging coolant channels, or material fatigue due to thermo-acoustic oscillations in a cooling loop causing false control of signals, among other possible reliability-related problems of a heat exchange system. Additionally, corrosion may increase maintenance costs associated with such a heat exchange system.
Effectiveness of cooling by flow of a coolant has a significant dependency on velocity of such coolant within the cooling loop. As is known, for a sufficiently high velocity, turbulent flow of the coolant may be obtained for enhanced cooling. However, an increase in coolant velocity leads to an increase in hydrodynamic losses associated with flow of coolant in a cooling loop. The increase in hydrodynamic losses has generally resulted in an increase in the consumption of energy for operation of the heat exchange systems themselves. Again, while not wishing to be bound by theory, it is believed that corrosion may further increase hydrodynamic losses and thus further increase the consumption of energy.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and useful to provide means to at least reduce the rate of corrosion in a fluid-operated heat exchange system.